New e-book and audiobook fiction by Maxim Jakubowski, John Connolly and Nancy Holder
Jakubowski wrangles disparate talents to flesh out Sherlock Holmes' nemesis Moriarty; Connolly delves into unadulterated spookiness; and Holder novelises a recent film chiller
by Maxim Jakubowski (read by Toby Longworth)
Audible (audiobook)
"It is said the devil has all the best lines, and who are we to contradict this?" Save for the fact that traditionally the devil has all the best tunes, it is hard to counter Maxim Jakubowski's maxim (if not his belief that James Bond is less memorable than Oddjob). Jakubowski has commissioned 37 stories by writers great(ish) and small that address the suspicion most of us have that Professor James Moriarty is more charismatic than Conan Doyle's famous detective. Alison Joseph sets the pace for several Conan Doyle parodies with The Two-Body Problem. Alexandra Townsend's A Good Mind's Fate is one of several stories that rewind into Moriarty's past, thanks to a brave soul called Molly who has the courage to ask the "Napoleon of Crime" "Why did you decide to become a criminal?" Dynamics of an Asteroid turns a paper by the professor into an unsettling thriller. Whether narrating Moriarty or Holmes, Toby Longworth is utterly superb.
